The Eminence in Shadow

“What’s up there…? Wait! Mary?!”

Mary is floating in the air. Her eyes are glowing red, and sharp canines are sticking out of her mouth.

Furthermore, the wound on her chest has completely closed up.

“So that’s what’s going on… Interesting!” The Tyrant laughs like a carnivore, and Mary offers him a sad smile.

The Tyrant’s billhook and Mary’s sword collide.

Their strength is—

evenly matched

. No, the Tyrant is coming out slightly ahead.

“You ain’t bad…!”

“—!!”

Sparks fly as they battle.

“But I’m better,” he snarls.

Then Mary gets blasted away. Debris goes flying in the billhook’s wake.

“Mary!!”

She crashes into the wall, then crumples to her knees.

“Rgh… I’m not used…to the blood yet…”

“It’s over.”

As Claire is distracted by Mary, the Tyrant appears before her and raises his billhook high.

She can’t defend herself in time.

“Cid… Forgive me…”

In her final moments, the only thing Claire thinks of is her brother.

But then—

“…The time of awakening is nigh.”

A man wearing a jet-black longcoat swoops in between Claire and the Tyrant.

“Hey!! The hell’s your problem?!”

“…You’re in my way.” The man blocks the billhook, then launches a casual upward kick.

Casual as it is, though, it’s also unbelievably fast.

The blow sends the Tyrant flying. He smashes through the wall hard, coughing up blood as he goes.

Unfortunately for him, the wall leads outside.

With nowhere left to stand, he enters a free fall.

As he does, his screams fade into the distance. “SHADOW! YOU BASTAAAAAAAAAAAAAARD…!!”

Claire looks up at the figure’s back. “You’re…Shadow…”

Under normal circumstances, his overwhelming power might have caused her to put her guard up.

But now, for whatever reason, seeing him sets her heart at ease.

Why is he inspiring such emotions in her, even though they’ve never met before? Claire doesn’t know.

She can’t tear her eyes off him.

“There isn’t much time left…”

Suddenly, he vanishes.

“Ah…”

It’s like he was never even there.

“Shadow…”

A faint glimmer of loneliness remains in Claire’s chest.

“That was Shadow…? Did he save us?” asks Mary as she gets back on her feet.

“I think so…”

“He took out the Tyrant in just one hit…”

“Mary, are you okay?”

“Probably… Sorry about that, Claire. For sucking your blood out of the blue.”

“Oh, that’s water under the bridge, but… Mary, is the thing you were hiding from me—?”

“Yeah, I’m a vampire…”

“Huh…”

“I’ll tell you everything: who I am, my motives, and the truth behind the Blood Queen…”

And with sadness in her eyes, Mary begins her tale.

Mary was once a follower of Elisabeth the Blood Queen.

This was back in the era when vampires ruled the night. At the time, Elisabeth held great power, even for a Progenitor.

Vampires hunted and killed humans practically for sport. Most of them saw humans as base livestock, and there were even some countries where they reigned over them wholesale.

For the vampires, it was their golden age.

Elisabeth, however, couldn’t stand the idea of hunting more humans than was necessary.

Because of that, she hunted only the bare minimum she needed to survive, refusing to take their lives in excess. There was no shortage of vampires who opposed her methods, so despite her power, her followers numbered few.

Soon, though, the vampires entered their dark age.

The humans began hunting the vampires back, turning the vampires’ era into one of nightmares. The destruction of the vampires’ capital sparked the fire of rebellion, and the vampires’ numbers dwindled in the blink of an eye.

At the time, Elisabeth and her followers ruled a small human country. They plowed the fields right alongside the humans, fought off monsters together, and protected their borders.

Vampires didn’t look down on humans in her lands, nor did humans fear vampires. The way they maintained that relationship was by not drinking blood.

Without drinking human blood, vampires can’t go on living.

That was the prevailing belief at the time, but by abstaining herself, Elisabeth disproved this theory.

Progenitors’ compulsion to drink blood is dozens of times stronger than that of normal vampires. The pain she endured must have been unimaginable. But she successfully went cold turkey through agony comparable to lopping her own arm off. Upon seeing her resolve, her followers did the same.

Without drinking blood, the vampires gradually lost their powers, eventually becoming no stronger than humans.

However, there were things that they gained, too.

For one, they gained the power to stay out in the sun. By giving up blood, they became able to live in the same beautiful, sunlit world as humans.

They also gained tranquility in their hearts. By abstaining from blood and living their lives basking in the sun’s rays, their urge to drink gradually subsided. Eventually, their dispositions were no different from humans.

Despite all that, Elisabeth the Progenitor’s powers were as great as ever.

Her skin would become inflamed when exposed to the light, so she couldn’t go outside without a thick black parasol. The only reason it didn’t instantly turn her to ash was because most Progenitors had a certain degree of resistance to sunlight in the first place.

Also, no matter how long she went without blood, her maddening urges never ceased.

Yet despite her agony, she carried out her life beneath her parasol just the same as all the others. Eventually, she gathered up her followers and spoke to them.

“Let us build a Haven here. A land where humans and vampires can live in peace…”

And by taking in and protecting vampires being pursued by humanity, her followers’ ranks grew.

Of course, the condition for her protection was that they give up blood.

Some of them resented her for this and revolted against her. It was with a heavy heart that she had to exile them. Some refused to comply, and those she put down herself.

At some point, all the vampires in the world came under human attack, and they all gathered under Elisabeth’s banner.

Her population expanded, humans and vampires mingled together, and her land prospered. She used her great powers to defend her lands, so vampire hunters dared not enter.

The Haven she’d set out to create was a success.

She prayed everyone would be able to continue living in peace.

However, all it took was a single night for the Haven to fall.

It was the night the Red Moon rose in the sky.

Elisabeth’s urge to drink grew ever stronger, so she was forced to lock herself away in her castle.

Back then, Mary was her second-in-command, and Crimson was her third.

The two of them took turns bringing her meals, but when it was Crimson’s turn, tragedy struck.

Crimson mixed human blood into Elisabeth’s food.

If she’d been at her best, she might have noticed its scent before she ate it. Or maybe she would have eaten it but still been able to withstand her urges.

But that was the day of the Red Moon.

She had been without blood for too long, and she wasn’t able to stop herself from going on a rampage. Crimson and his followers rose up in unison.

Between the rampaging Elisabeth and Crimson and his men, it took them only a few hours to slaughter every human in the country.

The vampires had seen humanity as mere livestock. There was no way they could live side by side with them.

Elisabeth’s dream, the Haven, had all been a mere fantasy.

Because Elisabeth’s followers had stopped drinking blood, they were powerless to resist, and they were slain as they fled.

Mary was the sole survivor.

In order to stop Elisabeth, she lapped up the blood of the dead. Then she pursued Elisabeth and the others all the way out of the country.

Their fervor knew no bounds, and before the day was out, Elisabeth had destroyed yet another small country and torn its king limb from limb.

Mary hadn’t made it in time.

Elisabeth’s rampage lasted a full three days, and in that time, she dealt catastrophic blows to another three countries.

Mary found Elisabeth the night after it was all over.

Elisabeth was weeping as she gazed out on the countries she’d ravaged.

“Please, cast my ashes into the sea so I can never rise again and repeat this mistake…,” she begged, then drove her sword into her own heart.

She should have turned to ash.

But she didn’t. Her blade missed the vitals ever so slightly.

Her heart stopped, and her lungs no longer breathed.

It was like she was dead.

Except she wasn’t.

If Mary placed human blood in her mouth, she would instantly be resuscitated.

Alternatively, if she gave the sword a small push, Elisabeth would instantly turn to ash.

Mary couldn’t do either.

She couldn’t go against her master’s will, but she couldn’t bring herself to kill her, either. Instead, she hid her eternally slumbering queen in a coffin and vowed to protect her until the end of days.

“It was a foolish decision. A few years after that, Crimson snatched Queen Elisabeth away. Because I refused to drink blood, I wasn’t powerful enough to protect her. Now, he’s planning on using her again. I don’t know how I could face her if I let the tragedy of a thousand years ago play out once more…” Mary smiles sadly. “But that’s everything. I’m not human. I’m a vampire. And I’m sorry for keeping that from you…”

“It’s fine. I’m no different. See, I might be one of the possessed. A few years ago, these black bruises appeared on my back, and they just wouldn’t stop spreading. But when I looked in the mirror one day, they were just gone.

Poof.

If those black bruises were the mark of the possessed, then eventually, I’ll become a monster… That’s why I forced my brother to come here with me. I wanted to get him into the Knight Order while I still can. But the moment I looked away, the enemy snatched him… I don’t know how I’ll be able to face him if anything happens to him…”

“Ah…”

The two of them are silent for a bit.

“I find it hard to believe that the Haven was really all a fantasy. Can’t you just try again?”

Claire doesn’t think Elisabeth was wrong. If she can, she wants to save her.

Mary shakes her head. “I don’t want to make the same mistake again.”

“I see… Well, if you’re not going to save her, I will. If we kidnap her and wait for the Red Moon to end, she shouldn’t go on a rampage.”

“But Claire…why go to such lengths?”

“Once this is over, we can wake her up. Then you two can talk it over.”

“But…I’m certain Queen Elisabeth just wants to die.” Mary looks down in thought. All sorts of conflicts are welling up inside her.

“You won’t know that till you ask. And it’d be too sad for things to just end like this. You’d be sad, Elisabeth would be sad, and all those dead people would be sad…”

Claire looks Mary in the eye and smiles.

Mary’s eyes are filled with hesitation. Deep down, she doesn’t want things to end like this, either.

“Your Haven wasn’t just some fantasy. That’s what I believe anyway. Let’s try and find an ending that has everyone smiling.”

“I’m sorry…for putting such a burden on you.” Mary looks back up and nods.

“Don’t worry about it. Now, let’s go beat up Crimson and kidnap your sleeping queen.”

“Sounds good. And we’ll make sure to save your brother, too.”

Claire stops in her tracks. “

I’m

going to be the one to save Cid. Don’t butt in.”

“Uh, okay…”

“You just back me up while I perform my beautiful, gallant rescue.”

“…Understood.”

With that, the two of them resume their ascent.